Child Evangelism Fellowship on Genocide

The animation below faithfully illustrates another one of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF)’s favorite Sunday School/Good News Club/Vacation Bible School lessons — “Saul’s Disobedience.” Namely, Saul’s disobedience in failing to finish his genocide of the Amalekites, after God had instructed him to kill everyone, including “children and infants” (1 Samuel 15).

As I wrote a few months ago in “Good News Club” on the Slaughter of the Amalekites, CEF uses this Bible story to emphasize the importance of “total obedience” to God’s purported commands. Even when the commands are troubling and seemingly Nazi-like (like the command to commit genocide) and “we don’t understand them,” the Christian duty is to carry out the commands without hesitation or reservation. As with my previous two animations, the female audio script is genuine — directly excerpted from the 1973 version of CEF’s appallingly authoritarian “Life of David” teaching script:

1 Samuel 15 is a favorite argument (legitimately so) of skeptics of Christianity against the inspiration and authority of the Bible. Most Christian adults know nothing about this story. But many Christian children do. I learned about it at a Good News Club when I was seven years old. This, and many other disturbing lessons like it, are designed to instill authoritarian values (such as “total obedience”) in children.

The testimony of my deconversion is tied to my conversion story. Both events were planted in the same revelation – a conversation my mother had with me as a young boy. That conversation is etched deep, painfully deep, in my consciousness. When I was five years old, Mom took ... Continue reading →